Ballad of CeCe McDonald

There are a lot of white men in this world who turn out a lot like Dean
Schmitz – homophobic, racist, bigoted and mean
He grew up to be a hard man, did the things that hard men do
Picked fights, went to prison, got a swastika tattoo

CeCe McDonald is a child of creation
And she’s black, and she’s trans, an often deadly combination
She went out with friends one night as friends often do
Which is where she met the man with the swastika tattoo

CeCe McDonald wasn’t looking for a fight
She was just out for the evening to have a drink, perhaps a bite
For Dean Schmitz the same thing was not true
That’s how it is when you’re a guy with a swastika tattoo

Dean said things to Cece which I shall not repeat here
About her race, about her gender, about all things he thought queer
CeCe and her friends tried not to take the cue
Not so the man with the swastika tattoo

The first blow was from a bigot, a beer mug to the face
Which left CeCe bleeding all over the place
CeCe left the building but then the next thing that she knew
She was confronted by the man with the swastika tattoo

CeCe left the building, she didn’t want to stay
She went out onto the sidewalk, she tried to get away
But when the Nazi came to get her she did what she had to do
And she stabbed him in his swastika tattoo

CeCe had no weapons but sometimes you can improvise
So she tried her sewing scissors on for size
Turned out they were sharp, turned out her aim was true
And it was the last day for the man with the swastika tattoo

CeCe called the cops and they took her off to jail
She was sentenced to 3 years but she lived to tell the tale
That’s one more woman who’s still breathing and one less Nazi who
Had upon his chest a swastika tattoo

“Ballad of CeCe McDonald” appears on the CD and Bandcamp album, The Other Side.

When George Zimmerman got out of his car, walked down the sidewalk, confronted a random person who was himself walking down the sidewalk, started a fight with him, shot and killed him, Zimmerman was “standing his ground” and found innocent of any wrongdoing. CeCe McDonald, however, who made an effort to avoid a confrontation but was forced to defend herself against a Nazi who had attacked her already, was found guilty and sent to prison for years. Can you say double-standard?